More cases of the deadly Middle East Respiratory Virus, or MERS, may be surfacing in the state of Florida, with two health workers now reportedly showing symptoms as of early Tuesday.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that two staffers at an
Orlando, Florida hospital who were exposed to a MERS patient
earlier this week have started showing symptoms, and that one of
the two workers has been hospitalized as a result.

According to Reuters, officials at the Dr. P. Phillips Hospital
now say that the workers were exposed to the disease when they
were recently in the proximity of a patient who had contracted
MERS but had not yet been diagnosed. As RT reported earlier this
week, that patient was hospitalized in isolation in the Sunshine
State after flying from Saudi Arabia to London, then to Boston,
Atlanta and Orlando.

One of the two workers at that Orlando facility has been
admitted, Reuters reported, and the second is being isolated at
home while observers monitor the development of any possible
further symptoms.

On Monday this week, RT reported that the Florida patient eventually
diagnosed with MERS was only the second person in the United
States to show signs of the disease after a person in Indiana
contracted the virus earlier this month. The hospital worker now
being treated for MERS would be the third person in the US in
under a month to become infected, and a fourth may soon be added
to that list as well pending the outcome of the other staffer
that’s now in isolation.

Last month, the World health Organization warned that that cases
of MERS could increase with warm weather, and that upwards of 75
percent of reported MERS cases are secondary — or acquired from
another sick person.

Late Monday, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention told reporters during a conference call that the
risk of MERS to the general public is believed to be extremely
low, according to the Washington Post. Nevertheless, the CDC said
they are working to contact more than 500 people who were on the
same domestic flights as the man who was admitted to Phillips
Hospital after entering the US from the Middle East.

The first patient in the US to contact MERS—the Indiana
patient—was released from the hospital last week after he began
testing positive and his symptoms disappeared. He had been living
and working in Saudi Arabia as well, RT reported on Monday.

According to the CDC, MERS is fatal in around 30 percent of known
cases.